Be Enchanting

May 3 2013

Enchantment – turning cynics into believers, causing voluntary change of hearts and minds, winning over true fans – isn’t just for slick salespeople and charismatic leaders. If you want to make an impact, change the world, or give a great presentation, you need to learn how to enchant your co-workers, clients and audience.

Guy Kawasaki wrote a great book on the subject. In Enchantment, Guy shares the wisdom he’s learned through his years as an Apple evangelist and business leader. In any videos of Guy, the first thing you notice is his warm, infectious personality, so he’s definitely a great person to learn from.

As a task-driven person, I don’t consider myself “warm and infectious”. This book had some really good ideas for relating better with the people in my world, and might help you too.

Develop crow’s feet. Those wrinkles beside your eyes that come from the habit of smiling aren’t a bad thing. The first step to starting things off on the right foot with people is with an authentic smile. Guy suggests that authentic smiles start by thinking “happy thoughts”.

Speak well of others. Building others up will help build bridges and help your team members start off on the right foot with others.

Create an immersive experience. When promoting your cause, the more you can do to draw people into the story, the more you will captivate people and help them suspend their skepticism.

Be transparent. Most of us enjoy watching shows like “How It’s Made”, or watching art demonstrations. When possible, let your clients see “behind the curtain” of your work to show transparency and develop trust.

Stories are better than stats at motivating action. People get overwhelmed by large numbers and overwhelming stats. If you want to convey emotion (and motivate action), tell the story of the one.

Money isn’t always the best motivator. “Adding financial incentives to a great cause may hurt it, so think twice about using money as an enchantment tool.”

Try the 10-20-30 rule. Making slides for a presentation? Guy recommends creating 10 slides in 20 minutes, using no smaller than 30-point font.

Judge your results and others’ intentions (not the other way around). It’s easy to give yourself the benefit of the doubt when you fail to reach goals, but hold others to a higher standard. Try giving others the same slack you would give yourself.

Don’t let one story determine your whole opinion. Whenever you make stuff that’s used by people, you’ll have a thousand opinions of things that should be changed. “One glaring data point doesn’t determine a trend. Don’t let it sway you.”

I’d love to hear your takeaways from Guy’s talk above, or the book if you pick it up!